Daimler Is Setting Up a $650 Million Charging Network For Commercial EVs (arstechnica.com) 26
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: There's a new fast-charging network coming to North America. It's called Greenlane, and it's a $650 million joint venture between Daimler, NextEra Energy Resources, and a BlackRock investment fund. But it's unlikely you'll recharge your passenger EV at a Greenlane site any time soon -- this new network is being designed specifically for medium- and heavy-duty commercial EVs. [...] Based on the company's renderings, Greenlane's sites will be much more comfortable for big rigs. The first of these sites will be in Southern California, and Greenlane says it will build out a network along critical freight routes on the East and West Coasts, as well as in Texas. To begin with, the company will focus on commercial EV recharging, but refueling infrastructure for hydrogen fuel cell EVs will follow. In time, Greenlane plans to add chargers for passenger (or light-duty) EVs. "Greenlane is designed to begin to tackle one of the greatest hurdles to the trucking industry's decarbonization -- infrastructure," said John O'Leary, Daimler Trucks North America's president and CEO.
"The nation's fleets can only transform with the critical catalyst of publicly accessible charging designed to meet the needs for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. Together with our strong partners, BlackRock and NextEra Energy Resources, we are launching Greenlane to address the unique demands of the industry, support our mutual customers, and provide a dual benefit to all electric vehicle drivers who will be able to utilize this new network. We're excited to take this next step and look forward to sharing more of Greenlane's plans in the future," O'Leary said.
"The nation's fleets can only transform with the critical catalyst of publicly accessible charging designed to meet the needs for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. Together with our strong partners, BlackRock and NextEra Energy Resources, we are launching Greenlane to address the unique demands of the industry, support our mutual customers, and provide a dual benefit to all electric vehicle drivers who will be able to utilize this new network. We're excited to take this next step and look forward to sharing more of Greenlane's plans in the future," O'Leary said.
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What agenda? People are buying electric cars and they need chargers.
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None of these EV articles ever talk about the CO2 costs with regards to building and constructing the vehicles and infrastructure to support them, and even then, they still need energy sources that release CO2 themselves to get power. When will it break even? I've never seen anyone concretely say when that point can be reached at the soonest.
The CO2 emissions from building charging stations is lost in the noise. EVs break even almost immediately if you're using green energy, or about halfway through the car's life for a typical energy mix. (source [iea.org])
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EVs break even almost immediately if you're using green energy
This is my point. How much CO2 is released to construct that green energy infrastructure? No article ever talks about that.
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How much CO2 will that infrastructure be offsetting compared to how much it takes to build it? Enabling big rigs to make long trips using only electricity probably counts for a lot.
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EVs break even almost immediately if you're using green energy
This is my point. How much CO2 is released to construct that green energy infrastructure? No article ever talks about that.
Not much. Wind turbine construction releases about 11 grams of CO2 per kWh over the lifetime of the turbine, versus 44 grams for solar and 450 grams for natural gas.
That means about a 98% reduction over the 25-year life of the wind farm or a 90% reduction over the 35-year life of the solar farm. So the wind farm breaks even after 6 months, and the solar farm breaks even after 3.5 years, give or take.
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EVs break even almost immediately if you're using green energy, or about halfway through the car's life for a typical energy mix. (source [iea.org])
This is not the case, and it is actually not even what the diagram you linked shows.
If we forget about infrastructure (should we?), and only focus on the car manufacturing, it all depends on the battery size: There was actually a study about that by the french energy agency (source). Even if you don't understand french, you can have a look at the diagram page 4, which shows:
- for an EV with a 22kWh battery, the break-even point is at ~20k kms
- for an EV with a 66kWh battery, the break-even point is at ~60k
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EVs break even almost immediately if you're using green energy, or about halfway through the car's life for a typical energy mix. (source [iea.org])
This is not the case, and it is actually not even what the diagram you linked shows.
I'm approximating using that diagram as the numerical source. The total extra CO2 in manufacturing is about 2.6 tons compared with that of the ICE car. The ICE car produces 35.9 tons of CO2 over its lifetime from emissions. So the break-even point is one-twelfth the lifetime of the car if you are using entirely green energy. That's maybe a year and a half, which in terms of the lifespan of a car, is almost immediate.
I may have missed the mark on typical energy mix. I don't actually remember what I used
Re:Will all the CO2 really be offset? (Score:4, Insightful)
This post reminds me of people who never cared about recycling anything or limiting the production of buildings or throwaway clothing or roadways or happy meal toys or anything else at any time during their entire life - until they are suddenly very concerned about the difficulty in recycling wind turbine blades, of all things.
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No, your concern trolling is about the articles. You could easily look this shit up if you cared and were actually concerned is. You're more interested in JAQing off.
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None of these EV articles ever talk about the CO2 costs with regards to building and constructing the vehicles and infrastructure to support them, and even then, they still need energy sources that release CO2 themselves to get power. When will it break even?
As energy production gets more clean it effectively "upgrades" all the vehicles. So a calculation like that requires predicting the future.
Ever the optimists (Score:2)
wait until it turns out like Electrify America and drivers have to bounce between spots to find a station that works. My advice, partner with Tesla for the megacharger connector or somehow don't end up with another charging 'standard' that is in last place.
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I actually think this will work, as they'll likely do this for fleet deals where they're selling/leasing the trucks and providing the charging services along the way (and probably maintenance too). A managed service for the truck that logistic companies can use.
Like most things, I expect the commercial service (this) to be wildly better than the dodgy consumer service (electrify america). Tesla is a standout in that they provide a great charging experience to consumers.
I can see where they may consider a
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As soon as it was decided that EVs would be a thing, there should have been a government regulation passed to enforce standard connectors.
Gas stations don't have proprietary nozzles, and allowing EV connectors to come in different flavors just means the infrastructure rollout will be that much slower to happen, and much less convenient.
The nation's fleets? (Score:2)
What connector and charging standards will be supported?
This sounds like management and marketing with no engineers, or "All Hat, No Cattle".
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Is this charging network being coordinated with the electric truck manufacturers (who's that again)?
In the USA the electric truck manufacturers are mostly Freightliner^WDaimler Truck North America LLC. Who's that again?
So fucking stupid (Score:2)
There should be one charging grid per country and it should be called "the grid" and it should be based on standards so everyone knows if they drive up to "car charger unit" in Bumfuck Idaho they know without any doubt it will Just Work.
This must be a car manufacturers wet dream, thinking they can sell us cars and then dictate how we use them. Fucking insane that this was not regulated the instant the first Tesla rolled off a factory worker into the road.